please drive safely

only suckers stand by the side of the freeway and take pictures of it. Suckers and people with jobs like mine (all seven of us in the world). In between the semis hurtling by, I run out to the edge, put a ruler down, and take pictures of it to show the texture of the road surface--all this to write a report! Reminds me of a summer job I had checking natural gas lines for leaks. We would walk along the side of the highways with a little handheld leak detection machine. If we found a leak we had to measure how far it was from the centerline of the road, running out in the middle with one of those measuring wheels. All this for $5.25 an hour?? At least it got me outdoors.

I also blew by a waiting cop today doing 80 in a test vehicle. He must have been looking for bigger fish, as I didn't get pulled over. I've often contemplated the risks to my license that I undertake for the company's sake and imagine the exchange would occur something like this:

Officer: "Do you know how fast you were going?"
JW: [confidently] "yes, exactly: 80 plus or minus one mile per hour. See, I'm running a test right now."
O: "You mean to say you're distracted from your driving by this testing?"
JW: [fidgeting nervously] "umm....all I do is hit a button on the computer."
O: "Sir, what is that grey plastic mannequin doing in your passenger's seat?"
JW: [beaming proudly] "That's Curly, my test dummy. I take him everywhere, like those My Buddy commercials in the '80s."
O: "Step out of the car, please."

for that matter, why do I have three computers and four pairs of headphones at my desk right now? Ever wake up and think you have the strangest job in the world?